1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an iris registration unit that can be used for an individual identification system employing biological characteristics of a user and an iris of a human in particular.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, authentication of personal identification is required in various cases. For example, the personal identification is necessary at the time of repayment by a bank, of borrowing of money using a cash card and a personal identification number and of credit repayment using a credit card and a signature. However, such conventional personal identification methods have problems in that, for example, the cash card or credit card may be stolen and used illicitly by others. To solve this problem, personal identification methods using biological characteristics of a human which defy theft and/or imitation are in the limelight in recent years. A voice, fingerprint, retina, iris and the like can be used as a representation of biological characteristics. Of them, the iris is considered to be most excellent for such personal identification in terms of recognition accuracy, ease of use and the like.
One example of the personal identification using the iris is an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) incorporating an iris recognition system being capable of authenticating the personal identification by using a cash card and the iris recognition system, instead of using the conventional cash card and personal identification number at the time of repayment and borrowing of money. This method is already demonstrated experimentally at a part of financial institutions.
Thus, by employing the iris recognition system, the personal identification system that defies theft and/or imitation of cards or the like can be implemented.
However, the conventional iris registration unit has a problem. That is, though it can prevent an illicit use of a false user under the pretense of users themselves, it cannot prevent an illicit use of a double (or multiple) registration by users themselves. For example, in the ATM system using the iris recognition system, there may be a case where a user himself or herself makes a double (or multiple) registration under the pretense of a different person to borrow amounts of money exceeding the allowed limit for borrowing.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an iris registration unit being capable of preventing double registration of iris data.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an iris registration unit for preparing an iris data base used for registering iris data obtained from an unregistered user comprising:
iris similarity judging means for judging a degree of similarity between the iris data obtained from the unregistered user and registered iris data already registered in the iris data base; and
registration judging means for judging, based on the degree of similarity judged by the iris similarity judging means, similarity and non-similarity of the iris data obtained from the unregistered user to the registered iris data already registered in the iris data base.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the iris registration unit further contains a biological characteristics data base in which biological characteristics data is registered showing biological characteristics corresponding to registered iris data stored in the iris data base and displaying and controlling means, when a judgement as to if there is similarity or not is made by the registration judging means, for displaying biological characteristics based on said biological characteristics data stored in the biological characteristics data base.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an iris registration unit for preparing an iris data base used for registering iris data obtained from an unregistered user comprising:
a biological characteristics data base in which biological characteristics data is registered showing biological characteristics corresponding to registered iris data stored in the iris data base;
iris similarity judging means for judging a degree of similarity between the iris data obtained from the unregistered user and the registered iris data base;
biological characteristics similarity judging means for judging a degree of similarity between the biological characteristics data obtained from the unregistered user and registered biological characteristics data stored in the biological characteristics data base; and
registration judging means for judging similarity and non-similarity of iris data obtained based on the degree of similarity judged by the iris similarity judging means to the registered iris data and, if similarity exists, for further judging similarity and non-similarity of the biological characteristics data, obtained based on the degree of similarity judged by the biological characteristics similarity judging means to the registered biological characteristics data.
In the foregoing, it is preferable that the iris registration unit further contains displaying and controlling means, when the biological characteristics data obtained is judged by the registration judging means to have no similarity, for displaying biological characteristics based on corresponding registered biological characteristics data.